Monday, August 08, 2005

Quotes of the Morning: Marching to a Different Beating

“The Pentagon acknowledged yesterday that two former members of the military team handling prosecutions of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had alleged last year that the trial system was rigged in favor of the government.A Pentagon spokesman said, however, that the prosecutors' charges had been ‘thoroughly investigated’ and dismissed as unfounded. While declining to reveal specifics of the allegations, Lawrence T. Di Rita said an investigation determined they were ‘much ado about nothing.’" -Associated Press, August 2, 2005

“That would be the same Mr. Di Rita who was so irate back in May about the stories regarding copies of the Koran being abused. The one who blamed the reporter for writing the story about it. You know, this one..” -Skippy

"People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?" -Lawrence DiRita, Pentagon Spokesman, as quoted in the May 23 Newsweek

“Of course, that was when this came out..” -Skippy

“In fact, complaints from released inmates that the Koran had been thrown into a toilet go back at least two years.Among the more detailed accounts of United States soldiers mishandling copies of the Koran were depositions from three Britons who were released from Guantánamo in the summer of 2004. Asif Iqbal, one of the men, who were from Tipton, England, and had been captured in Afghanistan, said that guards ‘would kick the Koran, throw it in the toilet and generally disrespect it.’ […]Last month, a former American interrogator confirmed to The New York Times an account given in an interview by a former Kuwaiti detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, who said that mishandling of the Koran once led to a major hunger strike. The strike ended only after a senior officer expressed regret over the camp's loudspeaker system, which was simultaneously translated by linguists at the end of each cell block, the former interrogator said. In that case, the accusations were of copies of the Koran being tossed on the floor in a pile and treated roughly, but there was no assertion that any had been put in the toilet.” -New York Times, May 17, 2005 “Maybe Mr. Di Rita isn’t the best place to go to find out if a story is valid or not. But hey, if he says that things are all hunky-dory with the prisoners and their treatment, well, who are we to argue?”” -Skippy

“Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was being stubborn with his American captors, and a series of intense beatings and creative interrogation tactics were not enough to break his will. On the morning of Nov. 26, 2003, a U.S. Army interrogator and a military guard grabbed a green sleeping bag, stuffed Mowhoush inside, wrapped him in an electrical cord, laid him on the floor and began to go to work. Again.It was inside the sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his last breath through broken ribs, lying on the floor beneath a U.S. soldier in Interrogation Room 6 in the western Iraqi desert. Two days before, a secret CIA-sponsored group of Iraqi paramilitaries, working with Army interrogators, had beaten Mowhoush nearly senseless, using fists, a club and a rubber hose, according to classified documents....‘The indig were hitting the detainee with fists, a club and a length of rubber hose,’ according to classified investigative records.Soldiers heard Mowhoush ‘being beaten with a hard object’ and heard him ‘screaming’ from down the hall, according to the Jan. 18, 2004, provost marshal's report. The report said four Army guards had to carry Mowhoush back to his cell.” -Washington Post, August 2, 2005

“Hmm.. Well, even if we are and detaining people illegally and beating them to death, its only to make us safer at home. We’re letting these people do monstrous things to prisoners (in our name) in order to keep American’s safe.” -Skippy

“The State Department issued an updated worldwide caution on terrorism yesterday, warning Americans about the threat of extremist violence against U.S. citizens and interests abroad.The warning did not list countries, nor did department officials offer any additional specifics about threats. The statement said ‘current information’ indicates that al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups are planning attacks against U.S. interests in ‘multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.’The department's official caution, which supersedes an alert issued in March, said attacks against private and official targets could come in the form of assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings or bombings.” -Washington Post, August 2, 2005 “What? The terrorists aren’t all in the Middle East? We aren’t safe, even if we do give up our traditional values are allow these abuses in our name? What the fuck? -Skippy